Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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(Today’s Book Installment)
Living in the Kingdom of God
Chapter 16 – The Contributions of the Temporary Ages
The kingdom of God – the one permanent age – was God’s long-term plan from the very beginning. To get there, God designed three preliminary ages that would pave the way for that ultimate kingdom.
Recall from The One True God, or from your own study of the Bible, what happened prior to Genesis 1:1. That is, God created His alter ego: the Messiah. Then, through the Messiah, God created everything we read about in Genesis 1.
Messiah operated under different names in the Old Testament – most notably, as the angel of the Lord.
God took this step so that He would be able to save the world He was about to create. He would need three steps to execute His plan. I’ve described these steps to you as three ages of humanity. After the three steps, God established His eternal kingdom. This kingdom is what allows good to overcome evil in a free-will world.
From the creation of the universe to the Second Coming of Christ took a little over 4,000 years. Here’s how that time breaks down between the first three stages:
1) The Age of Patriarchs lasted roughly 2,500 years
2) The Age of Israel lasted roughly 1,500 years
3) The Age of Church lasted less than 100 years
4) The Age of the Kingdom of God is eternal.
The Kingdom Age was built upon the three ages that preceded it. Each of those first three stages of humanity produced elements that were necessary for the kingdom of God to come into being. Let’s examine those contributions one stage at a time.
1) The Age of Patriarchs
The fathers preserved through oral tradition the knowledge of creation as well as other words and deeds of God. Ancient cultures were much more adept at preserving history through oral tradition than modern cultures can imagine. Written, and now digital, materials are economical and ever-present for us. By contrast, ancient people were able to memorize multiplication tables before there were calculators. Traditions passed down from ancient generation to ancient generation were Moses’ primary sources for the book of Genesis.
2) The Age of Israel
Moses launched the Bible by writing its first five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. After putting the oral tradition handed down to him (perhaps supplemented by God) into writing, Moses wrote the history of his own time within his remaining four books. He also wrote the book of Job. The prophets who came after him recorded the rise and fall of the nation that ensued – up to the time of Christ.
3) The Age of Church
The apostles and the church contributed the capstone of the Bible: the New Testament.
The Next Three Chapters
The permanent age has three realities that were not fully present in any prior age:
- The Revelation of God
- The Rearrangement of the Universe
- The Record to Remember
The three preliminary stages contributed to the first and last reality. The middle one God did all by Himself. We’ll spend the next three chapters breaking this down – reality by reality.
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